Facebook’s corporate parent has agreed to pay $725 million (₱40 billion) to settle a lawsuit alleging the world’s largest social media network allowed Cambridge Analytica to access millions of users’ personal information. Meta Platforms Settle
Meta Platforms, Facebook and Instagram’s holding business, published the settlement terms Thursday night. A judge must approve it at a March hearing in San Francisco.
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Cambridge Analytica, a corporation with ties to Trump strategist Steve Bannon, paid a Facebook app developer for access to 87 million users’ personal information. This data was utilized to target U.S. voters during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Uproar at the revelations led to a high-profile congressional hearing and requests to cancel Facebook accounts. Facebook’s growth has slowed as more people use competitor sites like TikTok, but the social network still has 2 billion users globally, including 200 million in the U.S. and Canada.
The lawsuit claimed the privacy violation revealed Facebook is a “data broker and surveillance corporation” as well as a social network.
The two parties negotiated an interim compromise in August, just weeks before Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg were to be deposed on Sept. 20.
Menlo Park, a California-based company, claimed the resolution was in the community’s and shareholders’ best interest.
Dina El-Kassaby Luce, a representative, said the company overhauled its privacy policy and created a comprehensive program. We want to continue building privacy-focused services that consumers love.
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